Switching apparatus for single button hand microphone

ABSTRACT

A microphone switching apparatus for operating a recorder. The apparatus is incorporated into a hand microphone housing having a speaker, a microphone element, and an opening through which a control button for the apparatus extends. The apparatus is generally made up of a multi-region magnet movable along a path relative to a number of reed switches. Switching positions lie along the path which is defined by a slot in the apparatus frame corresponding to the opening in the housing. The control button is connected to a bolt which in turn is connected to the magnet. Movement of the button to the various switching positions will result in a combination of the reed switches being picked and dropped by the magnet. The picking and dropping of the reed switches will provide operating signals to the recorder. Also, maintaining the control button at two of the switching positions requires operator control in that if the operator releases the button, it will spring back to a previous position. Springs indirectly acting against the magnet cause the button to spring back to the previous position. As to the remaining positions, springs also indirectly act against the magnet, but latching means will maintain the button in place in the absence of operator control.

United States Patent 1191 Coenen et al.

[11] 3,822,372 1451 July 2,1974

[ SWITCHING APPARATUS FOR SINGLE BUTTON HAND MICROPHONE [75] Inventors: I John Stephen Coenen; Ronald Eugene ll-Iunt, both of Austin, Tex.

[73] Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY. [22 Filed: Nov. 30, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 311,033

[52] US. Cl 200/157, 179/167, ZOO/61.58 R, 335/206 [5 l Int. Cl ..H0lh 21/22 [58] Field of Search 200/4, 6 A, 61.45 M, 16 R, ZOO/61.58 R, 157; 335/205, 206, 207; 179/167, 1 SW [56 I References Cited Primary Examiner-lames R. Scott Attorney, Agent, or Firm-James H. Barksdale, Jr.-

57 A ABSTRACT A microphone switching apparatus for operating a recorder. The apparatus is incorporated into a hand microphone housing having a speaker, a microphone element, and an opening through which a control button for the apparatus extends. The apparatus is generally made up of a multi-region magnet movable along a path relative to a number of reed switches. Switching positions he along the path which is defined by a slot in the apparatus frame corresponding to the opening in the housing. The control button is connected to a bolt which in turn' is connected to the magnet. Movement of the button to the various switching positions will result in a combination of the reed switches being picked and dropped by the magnet. The picking and dropping of the reed switches will provide operating signals to the recorder. Also, maintaining the control button at two of the switching positions requires operator control in that if the operator releases the button. it will spring back to a previous position. Springs indirectly acting against the magnet cause the button to spring back to the previous position. As to the remaining positions, springs also indirectly act against the magnet, but latching means will maintain the button in place in the absence of operator control.

11 Claims, 10 Drawing lFigures PAIENTEHJUL 219M SHEEI 1 [If 5 PAIENTEBJuL 2:914

SHEEI 2 OF 5 g T WEN F mtmtnm 21914 3.822 372 SHEEI 3 (IF 5 i BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 2. Description of the Prior Art Recorder microphones, per se, are old and well known in the art. Such microphones vary from simple encased microphone elements to combined speaker and microphone elements in combination with multiple controls. For example, the IBM EXECUTARY (Registered Trademark, International Business Machines Corporation) Dictating Unit (Model 271 has an integral (card connected) microphone having a speaker and microphone element along with four recorder control buttons. Two of the control buttons have two recorder control positions and the other two have three positions. Illustrative of a single button hand microphone is US. Pat. No. 2,933,566 to Muller et al. The microphone shown and claimed in'this patent has a single control button movable into three working positionsfor connecting the recorder for recording, reproducing, and repeating. There is also a rest position for switching the recorder off. In the microphone housing is an opening having guideslots radiating from a center which corresponds to the rest position. The guide slots radiating from the center are angularly spaced and correspond to the working positions. The control button is directly shiftable from the rest position into any one of the radially extending guide slots. This microphone, taken as a whole, is rather limited in terms of use and control of the recorder. That is, there are only four distinct positions, and incorporating additional radially extending guide slots would not result in additional control of the recorder. This is because the structure provided will not provide additional functions. Even assuming that additional structure could be incorporated into the microphone, the solution tothis problem is not readily attained when the location of control positions and operator control are considered from a human factors standpoint. Increasing the num ber of radially extending slots will increase the likelihood that the control button will be positioned in the wrong slot.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION By incorporating the switching apparatus of this invention into a microphone housing, a recorder can be reliably and conveniently operated with a single control button. The apparatus is primarily made up'of a multiregion magnet and a. number of associated reed switches. The multi-region magnet is positionable relative to the reed switches upon manipulation of the control button in a slot along which are located six switch or recorder control positions. The slot in general is arcuate in shape and has two oppositely and spaced radiating portions. Positioning the control button at any switch position along the slot will result in a combination of the reed switches being picked and dropped. The picking and dropping of the reed switches will provide signals which are'used for operating the-recorder.

Also, the apparatus is structured such that four of the six control positions are stable. That is, once the control button is in one of these four positions, it will remain there until shifted by the operator. The control button must be held in'the other two positions and will spring back to a previous position upon release.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING- In FIG. ll there is shown a single button hand microphone having a control cord which is connectable to a recorder. I

In FIG. 2 there is shown in perspective an exploded view of a multi-position switching apparatus which is incorporated into the microphone shown in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 3 there is shown a away, of the switching apparatus.

In FIG. 4 there is shown a side view of the switching apparatus.

In FIG. 5 there are shown the magnet and reed switches when the control button is positioned along the control slot in a stop position.

In FIG. 6 are illustrated the magnet and reed switches when the control button is in a record position.

In FIG. 7 are illustrated the magnet and reed switches when the control button is positioned along the control slot in aninstruction position.

In FIG. 8 are illustrated the magnet and reed switches when the control button is positioned along the control slot in a review position.

In FIG. 9 are illustrated themagnet and reed switches when the control button is in a listen position.

In FIG. 10 are illustrated the magnet and reed switches when the'control button is in an off position. a i

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIG. ll, there is shown a hand microphone generally designated byreference numeral 50. Microphone 50 is connectable along a control cord 49 to a recorder (not shown), and is made up of a housing 17 having openings 211, 40, and 48. Within housing 17 and communicating with openings 21 is a speaker. Also, within housing 17 and communicating with opening 48 is a microphone element. Opening 40 is a slot within which a bolt 18 is movable upon movement of integral control button 29. Movement of control button 29 to the positions instruction, record, stop, off, listen, and review will result in signals being applied along cord 49 for control and operation of the recorder. These signals are effected by the switching apparatus described below.

Reference is next made to FIG. 2 wherein there is shown an exploded view of the multi-position switching apparatus of this invention. Reference is also made to the plan and side views shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. This apparatus is incorporated into housing 17 of microphone 50. A bolt 18 extends through both slot 40 in housing 17 and a corresponding slot 23 in a main frame 16, and is fixedly secured to a carrier 28. A shifting block 6 is also secured to carrier 28 and has pins 20 which are fixed in openings24 in an activatingmechanism generally designated by reference numeral 30. Activating mechanism 30is made up of 1) a magnetic member I carried by a plate 2, and 2) a U-shaped resilient detent member 4 bonded in the vicinity of openings 67 to a ferro-magnetizable spring support and base plan view, partially broken 5. Block 6 is slideably fitted between sides 71 and 72 of base 5. Base has a post 68 for maintaining a spring 3. Spaced from and in communicating relationship with magnetic member 1 is a card 22 carrying a number of reed switches such as 37.

Main frame 16 has pivot post on which openings 67 in member 4 and base 5 are fitted, and about which mechanism 30 is rotatable. As illustrated, pivot 15 is displaced from arcuate-shaped slot 23 which has oppositely and spaced radiating portions (INST and OFF) opening therein and extending along radii extending from said pivot. Main frame 16 also carries restraints l1 and 12 which are rotatable about posts 57 and 58 and spring biased in the position shown (FIG. 3) by springs 13 and 14, respectively. Also, main frame 16 carries table 9 under which the upper portions of carrier 28 and base 5 are fitted. As can be seen more clearly in referring specifically to FIG. 3, the upper portion of base 5 has a detent finger 19. When magnetic memberl is moved to the side of frame 16 having restraint 11, finger 19 will be biased against lug 59 of latch 7. On an arm of main frame 16 is secured a magnet 10 which serves to hold magnetic member 1 and base Sin place when base 5 is brought in contact therewith. I

Referring particularly to FIG. 3 in conjunction with FIG. 2-, magnetic member 1 is biased in the neutral rotational position by rotatable restraints l1 and 12 (rerier 28. From the above, carrier 28, block 6, and activating mechanism form a unit which is rotatable about pivot post 15. With block 6 in the position shown in FIG. 3, the control button-29 will be in the position shown in FIG. 1. That is, ears 51 and 52 of U-shaped member 4 are acting against hips 69 and 70 and are in contact with waist sides 74 and 75 of block 6. Spring 3is biasing block 6 in an upward direction.

With. bolt 18 and integral control button 29 in the stop position 43, the positional relationship of magnetic member 1 and reed switches 37, 38, and 39 will be as shown in FIG. 5. As illustrated in FIGS. 5-10, magnetic member 1 is a multi-region, or multi-pole magnetic activator having polarized portions 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 for activating and deactivating reed switches 37, 38, and 39. In fact, each'portion, such as 31, could be a separate magnetsince the regions below each of the illustrated portions are oppositely polarized. The reed switches 37, 38, and 39 are simple transducers readily available and well known in the art. They are magnetically opened and closed (picked and dropped) depending on the position of a magnet relative thereto. The picking and dropping of the combination of reed switches 37, 38 and 39 provide the signals for controlling the recorder as bolt 18 is moved through positions 41 (instruction), 42 (record), 43 (stop), 44 (listen), 45 (review), and 46 (off) in slot 40. As pointed out above, slot 40 corresponds to slot 23 in main frame 16. These slots define a path through, and along, which bolt 18 and integral control button 29 are shifted for operating the recorder. 5

Referring again to FIG. 3, as bolt 18 is moved from, for example, position 46 to position 43 (FIG. 5), hips 69 and 70 of block 6 will ride down ramps 63 and 64. This will cause ears 5] and 52 of member 4 to expand for passage therebetween of hips 69 and 70. Spring 3 is'a compression spring which biases hips 69 and 70 (block 6) in an upward direction, and in the position shown, against the lower portions of ears 51 and 52. Although bolt 18 is in what is labeled a stop" position, as far as the switching apparatus as a whole is considered, this is a neutral position. That is, right and left rotation of magnet l is restrained by rotatable restraints 11 and 12. For stop position 43, reed switch 38 will be closed and reed switches 37 and 39 will be open.

Refer next to FIG. 6 wherein there is shown bolt 18 in the record position 42. Assuming that bolt 18 is moved from position 43 to position 42, magnetic member 1 (will be moved to the right as viewed from FIG. 3 and) will be shifted to a position determined by the contact of magnet 10' and base 5. During this movement of bolt 18 mechanism 30 is rotated about post 15 against restraint 12. The attraction of magnet 10 to base 5 is sufficient to overcome any reverse rotation of mechanism 30 under the influence of restraint l2 and spring 14. For the record position, reed switches 37 and 38 will be closed and reed switch 39 will be open.

With bolt 18 in the record position 42, an operator can cause a mark to be made on the recording media used with the recorder by moving bolt 18 to the instruction position 41. When so moved, block 6 (FIG. 3) will be moved down against spring 3. When the operator releases button 29, bolt 18 will spring back to position 42, since there are no means for holding bolt 18 in position 41. When bolt 18 is moved to position 41, the positional relationship of magnetic member 1 and switches 37, 38, and 39 will be as shown in FIG. 7. At this time, reed switches 38 and 39 will be open and reed switch 37 will be closed.

If after recording a certain amount of information, the dictator, or operator, wishes to review and listen to a previous portion of the recorded information, bolt 18 is moved from position 42, through positions 43 and 44, to position 45. During this repositioning operation, detent finger 19 (FIG. 3) will contact lug 59 and rotate latch 7 against spring 8. Spring 8 is sufficient to maintain finger 19 on one side or the other of lug 59 in the absence of operator intervention. After finger 19 is to the left of lug 59, further leftward rotation of magnetic member 1 is against rotatable restraint l1 and spring 13. That is, the operator must hold button 29 at position 45 or it will return to position 44 which is defined by finger 19 acting against lug 59. When bolt 18 is moved to position 45, the read/write head (not shown) in the recorder is backspaced. At this time, reed switches 37 and 38 are open and reed switch 39 is closed by magnetic member 1. Previously recorded material, to the extent of the backspacing of the head, is reviewed by the operator releasing control button 29 and allowing bolt 29 to spring back to position 44. Position 44 is the listen position as shown in FIG. 9, and reed switches 38 and 39 are closed and reed switch 37 is opened by magnetic member 1.

Should at this time the operator desire to turn the recorder off, button 29 and bolt 18 are moved to the off position 46. The distinction between stop and off can be for purposes of turning off a continually running, clutch engageable drive motor. That is, mov ing button 29 to the off position will cause the motor to be turned off, and moving button 29 to the stop" position will cause disengagement of a drive clutch.

In order to reposition bolt 18 from a position remote from, and on the opposite side of position 43, bolt 18 must be moved through position 43. As pointed out above, the position of the elements in FIG. 3 corresponds to bolt 18 being in position 43. Upon moving bolt 18 to position 46, block 6 is radially translated or switches being closed.

The above reference to arecorder is meant to include'any recording and reproducing apparatus capable of performing such operations as recording, playing back, and backspacing. A dictator can operate and control the recorder by holding the above described microphone in the palm of a hand and manipulating the control button with a thumb. The picking and dropping of the combination of reed switches upon manipulation of the control button will effect connection of the speaker and microphone element to the recorder, and

made up of a multi-region magnet and a number of associated reed switches. The multi-region magnet is positionable relative to the reed switches upon manipulation of the control button in a slot along which are located six switch or recorder control positions. The slot in general is arcuate in shape and has two oppositely and spaced radiating portions. Positioning the control button at any switch position along the slot will result in a combination of the reed switches being picked and dropped. The picking and dropping of the reed switches will provide signals which areused for operating the recorder. Also, the apparatus is structured such that four of the six control positions are stable. That is, once the control button is in one of these four positions, it will remain there until shifted to another position by the operator. The control button must be held in the other two positions and will spring back to a previous position upon release. v

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a particular embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A hand microphone multi-position switching apparatus operable witha single control button, said apparatus comprising:

a. means having a generally arcuate shaped opening for defining ,a path along which said button is moveable and switch positions are located;

b. a plurality of reed switches for defining said switch positions upon activation and deactivation; and

c. a rotatably shiftable magnetic activating means movable by said button relative to said plurality of 0 reed switches for activating and deactivating a combination of said plurality of reed switches.

2. An apparatus according to claim 11 comprising a number of spring means for biasing said activating means in first position.

3. An apparatus according to claim 11 wherein said arcuate shaped opening has oppositely and spaced radiating portions opening therein and extending along radii from a pivot about which said activating means is rotatable.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said activating means is radially shiftable and comprising means for maintaining said activating means in a radial position in absence of operator control of said button.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4 comprising I magnetic means for maintaining said activating means in a second position in absence of operator control of said button.

6. An apparatus according to claim Sfcomprising spring biased latch means for maintaining said activating means in a third position in absence of operator control of said button.

7. A hand microphone for controlling a recorder having a multi-position switching apparatus operable with a single control button and comprising:

a. a frame having a generally arcuate shaped opening defining a path along which said control button is moveable;

b. a magnetic activating means moveable along said path with movement of said control button;

c. a plurality of means for;

l. biasing said control button and said activating means in one position along said path,

2. maintaining said control button and said activat ing means in a second position along said path,

3. maintaining said control button and said activating means in a third position along said path, and

d. a plurality of reed switches positioned relative to said path for applying signals to a recorder upon picking and dropping of said reed switches by said activating means when said activating means is moved relative thereto upon movement of said control button.

8. A hand microphone according to claim 7 wherein said generally arcuate-shaped opening has a portion opening therein and lying along radius extending from said pivot.

9. A hand microphone according to claim 8 wherein said activating means is comprised of a multi-region magnet.

10. A hand microphone according to claim 7 wherein said magnetic activating means is rotatable about a pivot displaced from said generally arcuate-shaped opening.

II. A hand microphone according to claim 10 positely and spaced radiating portions extending along radii extending from said pivot. 

1. A hand microphone multi-position switching apparatus operable with a single control button, said apparatus comprising: a. means having a generally arcuate shaped opening for defining a path along which said button is moveable and switch positions are located; b. a plurality of reed switches for defining said switch positions upon activation and deactivation; and c. a rotatably shiftable magnetic activating means movable by said button relative to said plurality of reed switches for activating and deactivating a combination of said plurality of reed switches.
 2. An apparatus according to claim 1 comprising a number of spring means for biasing said activating means in first position.
 2. maintaining said control button and said activating means in a second position along said path,
 3. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said arcuate shaped opening has oppositely and spaced radiating portions opening therein and extending along radii from a pivot about which said activating means is rotatable.
 3. maintaining said control button and said activating means in a third position along said path, and d. a plurality of reed switches positioned relative to said path for applying signals to a recorder upon picking and dropping of said reed switches by said activating means when said activating means is moved relative thereto upon movement of said control button.
 4. An apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said activating means is radially shiftable and comprising means for maintaining said activating means in a radial position in absence of operator control of said button.
 5. An apparatus according to claim 4 comprising magnetic means for maintaining said activating means in a second position in absence of operator control of said button.
 6. An apparatus according to claim 5 comprising spring biased latch means for maintaining said activating means in a third position in absence of operator control of said button.
 7. A hand microphone for controlling a recorder having a multi-position switching apparatus operable with a single control button and comprising: a. a frame having a generally arcuate shaped opening defining a path along Which said control button is moveable; b. a magnetic activating means moveable along said path with movement of said control button; c. a plurality of means for;
 8. A hand microphone according to claim 7 wherein said generally arcuate-shaped opening has a portion opening therein and lying along radius extending from said pivot.
 9. A hand microphone according to claim 8 wherein said activating means is comprised of a multi-region magnet.
 10. A hand microphone according to claim 7 wherein said magnetic activating means is rotatable about a pivot displaced from said generally arcuate-shaped opening.
 11. A hand microphone according to claim 10 wherein said generally arcuate-shaped opening has oppositely and spaced radiating portions extending along radii extending from said pivot. 